Source: Whispersofsatan.wordpress.comBy Lux FerousThe Western Black Rhino went extinct today. Poachers, they say. Of course, we forget of the many other species that went extinct today. And that’s from a panda saving website. It’s a dilemma people don’t bother pondering about – extinction. Darwinian evolution, right? Herbert Spencer’s survival of the fittest, Charles Darwin’s natural selection, the Lion King’s circle of life. It’s all natural, isn’t it? The rhino didn’t adapt for the new era we’re in. To bad for the rhino. What’s it to us, anyway? We try to save pandas, koalas, polar bears. Why? They’re cute and furry and bear-y. Forget the rest. It’s all about us. We want the world to look pretty, so we save the pretty looking animals. Sounds like playing God to me. But then again, who’s to stop us? It’s sad this rhino went extinct. It really is. I liked rhinos. Same way I like humans, so I’ll save a fellow homo-sapien when I need to. Some of them look pretty, too. But they’re not furry…. In other words, they are winners and losers. The cutest and the rest. Humans, pandas, koalas, we’re all pretty darn cute. The Pyrenean Ibex? Eh, not as interesting. So I guess it’s still survival of the fittest, except being cute means being fit. I just wish we realized the contradiction. It’s the circle of life. But the rhino broke the cycle. Liberation, right? Not everything can be saved. I hope I didn’t burst your idealism bubble. If I did, you better hurry up with adaptation.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survival_of_the_fittest

In April I posted about the plight of Australia’s most lovable marsupial, the Koala. The national icon faces hazards due to habitat loss, attacks from feral and domestic dogs, road traffic and even angry cattle. And then there are the droughts and wildfires. For something so supposedly beloved, the koala is getting a seriously raw deal at the hands of Australia’s human population – particularly industrial interests. Recently, Australian Bluegum Plantations, a company with environmental credentials (now revoked), apologized for killing and maiming koalas in Victoria state. From The Age: "Wildlife carers raised the alarm in July after finding koalas had been killed, maimed, stranded, left suffering from pneumonia and starving in plantations in the green triangle region of Victoria and South Australia, between Mount Gambier and Portland. While there has been no population audit, it is understood there are thousands of koalas in the area." Bluegum, a logging firm which exports woodchip, is guilty of what the timber industry in general has routinely visited upon koalas in Victoria and South Australia. Bluegum is just the largest firm involved.See this (rather sad) report from ABC News for more. It’s a far cry from this amusing story about a koala that wandered into a hotel pub in Hamilton. I guess cute videos stand more of a chance of going viral than stories of cuddly koalas with broken backs and severed arms. Luckily the pub crawling marsupial was rescued and returned to the wild unharmed. Another story saw a koala being rescued from a rabbit trap in Melbourne. More....

Sometimes what’s cute and cuddly for some is a headache for others. For example, the importation of non-native species into Australia has severely impacted indigenous wildlife and communities that depend on the survival of the continent’s ecosystems. Yet in general, we all love bunnies, puppies and kittens – some of the most damaging non-native feral animals in Australia. Among non-native or “invasive” animals, which have flourished in Australia to the detriment of native wildlife are the cane toad, red fox, deer and camel. European rabbits have famously impacted the country’s wild vegetation. Common cats and dogs are also sources of major problems Dogs hunt just about anything, including lumbering koalas. They also interbreed with dingos, diluting the “purity” of the species. (While dingos were originally domesticated dogs from Asia, they have lived wild in Australia for thousands of years, and so are not exactly feral.) Domestic cats, on the other hand, are predators the likes of which native wildlife has never seen. In fact, cats have it so well in some parts of Australia they’re literally growing to enormous proportions. Feral cats found in the Northern Territory can weigh 12-15 kilos (26-33 pounds) and according to some reports even up to 20 kilos (45 pounds).Research manager Georgia Vallance is quoted in an ABC Rural report: "We’ve been noticing more feral cats here over the last few years, and when these cats are culled by the rangers they perform a gut analysis, and the amount of animals inside these cats is staggering. One that was culled had the remains of two sugar gliders, a velvet gecko, a bird and some insects… so that’s just one cat, over one day. So the project the rangers are now doing is to try and establish the population of cats, what their range is and what their behaviour is. There’s been some research that cats will gravitate towards recently burnt country because the hunting is easier, and if that’s the case we’ll have to adapt our management regime." More....